List of countries by fertility rate

The total fertility rate (TFR) or often simply ‘fertility rate’ in a specific year is defined as the total number of
children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to
children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates.

Niger has the highest fertility rate of 6.95 children per woman followed by Somalia at 6.12. 11 countries/regions
have TFR above 5. 40 countries/territories have fertility rate over 4 in which first 22 and total 37 belong to
Africa. Afghanistan, Solomon
Islands and Timor-Leste are the remaining three.

Out of 201 countries and dependent territories estimated by UN, 109 have fertility rate more than population
replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. Replacement fertility is the total fertility rate at which women give birth
to enough babies to sustain population levels.

First 4 entrants having lowest fertility rate in Asia : Republic of Korea (1.11), Taiwan (1.15), Macao (1.20) and Singapore
(1.21). Puerto Rico, which is located in North America has 5th lowest figure followed by five
European country.

Countries with higher fertility rate tend to have lower median age and higher population growth rate. In the list
of top 50 countries by higher fertility rate, all have median age below 23 years and only one has population growth rate
below 1% and 8 have below 2%. In the list of top 50 countries by lowest fertility rate, only two have median age less than
35 years and only three have population growth rate over 1%.